James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 - 1903)

James Abbott McNeill Whistler is July 11, 1834 born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was the first child born to Anna Matilda McNeill and George Washington Whistler, a prominent engineer. ^[1][2] He is baptized November 9, 1834 in Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. ^[1]

Whistler lives the first three years of his life in a modest house in Lowell, now the Whistler House Museum of Art. The family moves from Lowell to Stonington, Connecticut in 1837, They live in Springfield until they leave the United States in late 1842, when his father is hired by Nicholas I of Russia to engineer a railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Whistler is a moody child, prone to fits of temper and insolence, and he often drifts into periods of laziness after bouts of illness. His parents discover that drawing often settles him down and helps focus his attention.

After his father dies from cholera, the family moved back to his mother's hometown of Pomfret, Connecticut. In 1851, he was admitted to West Point where his late father taught drawing, but he failed to meet the standards of the rigorous academic and athletic curriculum, so he was dismissed. He works as a coast guard draftsman for a few months, then opens an art studio in Baltimore for a few more. He shortly leaves the US to pursue art training in Paris. By 1860, he makes his permanent home in London and regularly visits his artist friends in Paris, and never returns to the US.

In later years, he plays up his mother's connection to the American South and its roots, and he presents himself as an impoverished Southern aristocrat, although it remains unclear to what extent he truly sympathizes with the Southern cause during the American Civil War. He adopts his mother's maiden name after she dies, using it as an additional middle name.

Whistler becomes an artist. His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger for a tail. The symbol was apt, for it combined both aspects of his personality—his art was characterized by a subtle delicacy, while his public persona was combative. Finding a parallel between painting and music, Whistler entitled many of his paintings "arrangements", "harmonies", and "nocturnes", emphasizing the primacy of tonal harmony.

His most famous painting is known as Whistler's Mother (1871, pictured here), the revered and oft parodied portrait of motherhood. The US Postal Service issued a 3-cent stamp in its likeness at FDR's suggestion, entitled Mothers of America (1934). ^[3]

In 1888, Whistler marries Beatrix Godwin at St. Mary Abbott's Church, Kensington. She is the widow of the architect E. W. Godwin, who had designed Whistler's White House. Beatrix is the daughter of the sculptor John Birnie Philip and his wife Frances Black.

Whistler has several illegitimate children, of whom Charles Hanson is the best documented. This is Charles James Whistler Hanson b. 10 Jun 1870 d. 1935. His mother was Louisa Hanson. He also had a daughter with Maud Franklin b. Abt. 1877.

In 1892, he was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur, France.

Whistler dies July 17, 1903 in London, England, United Kingdom. ^[4] He is buried at Old Chiswick Cemetery in Chiswick, London Borough of Hounslow, Greater London, England. ^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915, James Abbott or Mc_neil Whistler, November 9, 1834; Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States..
2. ↑ England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957, James Abbott McNeill Whistler in entry for Anna Matilda Whistler, 11 Mar 1881; citing Probate, England, United Kingdom, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Great Britain.
3. ↑ FDR and Mother's Day (1934), American Art on Postage Stamps, Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
4. ↑ England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957, James Abbott Mc Neill Whistler, 3 Sep 1903; citing Probate, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Great Britain.
5. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #1404 page for James McNeill Whistler (10 Jul 1834–17 Jul 1903), Find a Grave Memorial no. 1404, citing Old Chiswick Cemetery, Chiswick, London Borough of Hounslow, Greater London, England.

• Wikipedia: James Abbott McNeill Whistler

• Encyclopedia Britannica

See also:

• 'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell, published by The Hogarth Press, Pimlico, London in 1996. ISBN 0 7126 7450 0, includes extensive family trees. Hundreds of friends, professional connections and people in the 'Bloomsbury set' are also mentioned in the text.'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell